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Book 2, Chapter 28.
第二册，第28章。
Ol-ol--howjer spell it, anyhow?"
“O-1--O-1--到底怎么拼？”那位严厉的小姐问。
asked the tart young lady to whom Archer had pushed his wife's telegram across the brass ledge of the Western Union office.
在西联邮局营业处，阿切尔刚把妻子的电报越过铜壁架递给她。
"Olenska--O-len-ska," he repeated, drawing back the message in order to print out the foreign syllables above May's rambling script.
“奥兰斯卡--O--len--ska，”他重复了一遍，抽回电文，以便把梅潦草字迹上方的外文字母描成印刷体。
"It's an unlikely name for a New York telegraph office; at least in this quarter," an unexpected voice observed; and turning around Archer saw Lawrence Lefferts at his elbow, pulling an imperturbable moustache and affecting not to glance at the message.
“这个名字在纽约电报局可不常见，至少在本区，”一个不期而至的声音说。阿切尔回过头去，只见劳伦斯·莱弗茨正站在他身旁，捋着齐整的髭须，装出不瞥电文的样子。
"Hello, Newland: thought I'd catch you here.
“你好，纽兰：我估计会在这儿赶上你的。
I've just heard of old Mrs. Mingott's stroke; and as I was on my way to the house I saw you turning down this street and nipped after you.
我刚刚听说老明戈特太太中风之事，正要到家里去，见你转到这条街上，就追赶你。
I suppose you've come from there?"
我想你是从那儿来的吧？”
Archer nodded, and pushed his telegram under the lattice.
阿切尔点了点头，并把电报从格子底下推过去。
"Very bad, eh?" Lefferts continued. "Wiring to the family, I suppose.
“很严重，是吗？”莱弗茨接着说。“我想，是发电报给亲属吧。
I gather it is bad, if you're including Countess Olenska."
如果你们连奥兰斯卡夫人也包括在内，我估计病情是很严重了。”
Archer's lips stiffened; he felt a savage impulse to dash his fist into the long vain handsome face at his side.
阿切尔的嘴唇绷紧了，他感到一阵野蛮的冲动，想挥拳猛击他身旁那张徒有其表的漂亮长脸。
"Why?" he questioned.
“为什么？”他质问道。
Lefferts, who was known to shrink from discussion, raised his eye-brows with an ironic grimace that warned the other of the watching damsel behind the lattice.
以回避争论而著称的莱弗茨耸了耸眉毛，装出一副可笑的怪相，警告对方格子后面那姑娘在留心观察。
Nothing could be worse "form" the look reminded Archer, than any display of temper in a public place.
他那神态提醒阿切尔，再没有比当众发火更糟的“举止”了。
Archer had never been more indifferent to the requirements of form; but his impulse to do Lawrence Lefferts a physical injury was only momentary.
阿切尔从来没有像现在这样不在乎对举止的那些要求。然而，对劳伦斯·莱弗茨施以肉体伤害只是一时的冲动而已，
The idea of bandying Ellen Olenska's name with him at such a time, and on whatsoever provocation, was unthinkable.
在这种时候与他谈论埃伦·奥兰斯卡的名字，不论基于什么原因都是不可思议的。
He paid for his telegram, and the two young men went out together into the street.
他付了电报费，两个年轻人一起到了街上。
There Archer, having regained his self-control, went on: "Mrs. Mingott is much better: the doctor feels no anxiety whatever"; and Lefferts, with profuse expressions of relief, asked him if he had heard that there were beastly bad rumours again about Beaufort....
这时阿切尔已恢复了自制，他说：“明戈特太太已经大有好转，医生认为没什么可担心的了。”莱弗茨脸上充满宽慰的表情，接着问他是否听说又有了与博福特有关的糟糕透顶的流言……
That afternoon the announcement of the Beaufort failure was in all the papers.
这天下午，博福特破产的公告见诸各家报端，
It overshadowed the report of Mrs. Manson Mingott's stroke, and only the few who had heard of the mysterious connection between the two events thought of ascribing old Catherine's illness to anything but the accumulation of flesh and years.
它使曼森·明戈特太太中风的消息相形失色，只有极少数了解这两起事件之神秘联系的人才会想到老凯瑟琳的病决作肥胖与年龄使然。
The whole of New York was darkened by the tale of Beaufort's dishonour.
整个纽约被博福特的无耻行径罩上一层阴影。
There had never, as Mr. Letterblair said, been a worse case in his memory, nor, for that matter, in the memory of the far-off Letterblair who had given his name to the firm.
正如莱特布赖先生所说的，在他的记忆中从来没有比这更糟的情况了，甚至远在那位创办这家事务所的老莱特布赖的记忆中也没有过。
The bank had continued to take in money for a whole day after its failure was inevitable; and as many of its clients belonged to one or another of the ruling clans, Beaufort's duplicity seemed doubly cynical.
一已成定局之后，银行竞然还收了整整一天的钱，由于许多顾客不属于这个大家族就属于那个大家族，所以博福特的欺诈就显得格外阴险毒辣。
If Mrs. Beaufort had not taken the tone that such misfortunes, the word was her own, were "the test of friendship," compassion for her might have tempered the general indignation against her husband.
假如博福特太太没有说这一“不幸”她的原话是对“友谊的考验”这样的话，人们出于对她的同情，也许还会缓解一下对她丈夫的愤慨。
As it was--and especially after the object of her nocturnal visit to Mrs. Manson Mingott had become known-her cynicism was held to exceed his; and she had not the excuse-nor her detractors the satisfaction-- of pleading that she was "a foreigner."
但在她这样说了以后--尤其是当人们得知她夜访曼森·明戈特太太的目的之后--在人们的心目中，她的心肠之黑，已远远超过了她的丈大。而且她也不能用自己是“外国人”作为借口，求得人们的宽恕。
It was some comfort to those whose securities were not in jeopardy to be able to remind themselves that Beaufort was; but, after all, if a Dallas of South Carolina took his view of the case, and glibly talked of his soon being "on his feet again," the argument lost its edge, and there was nothing to do but to accept this awful evidence of the indissolubility of marriage.
但是,对于那些其债券没有受到威胁的人来说，想起博福特是个外国人，倒是能给他们带来一点安慰。然而，假如南卡罗莱纳州的一位达拉斯把情况审视一番，并怜牙俐齿地说他很快就会“重新站起来”，那么，问题就会得到缓解，人们除了接受婚姻是牢不可破的这一严酷事实外，别无选择。
Society must manage to get on without the Beauforts, and there was an end of it-except indeed for such hapless victims of the disaster as Medora Manson, the poor old Miss Lannings, and certain other misguided ladies of good family who, if only they had listened to Mr. Henry van der Luyden...
社交界必将在没有博福特夫妇的情况下继续存在。而事情总要有个了结--除了这场灾难的不幸受害者如梅多拉·曼森，可怜的老拉宁小姐，以及另外几位误入歧途的良家大人，她们若是早听亨利·范德卢顿先生的话……
"The best thing the Beauforts can do," said Mrs. Archer, summing it up as if she were pronouncing a diagnosis and prescribing a course of treatment, "is to go and live at Regina's little place in North Carolina. Beaufort has always kept a racing stable, and he had better breed trotting horses.
“博福特夫妇最好的办法--”阿切尔太太好像下诊断书、提出治疗方案似地归纳说，“就是到北卡罗莱纳州里吉纳那个小地方去居住。博福特一直养着赛马，他现在最好是养拉车的马。
I should say he had all the qualities of a successful horsedealer."
我敢说他准会是个呱呱叫的马贩子。”
Every one agreed with her, but no one condescended to enquire what the Beauforts really meant to do.
大家都同意她的意见，但却没有一个屈尊问一下博福特夫妇究竟打算干什么。
